What would be the most plausible explanation according to the orthodox classical theravada to rising numbers of humans? It seems that the number of humans has been raising for quite a while, but lately, during last century or so, the growth has been exponential.

Maybe devas have, en masse, decided to descend from heavens and to born as humans? Or a few beehives full of bees have gained enough merit to be born as humans (we seem to have a mass extinction of bees going on in Europe)?

I'm not sure if it's correct, but I assume that in most cases, maybe even all cases, one stream of consciousness can "kickstart" only one at rebirth. Or to put it more precisely, one stream of consciousness never branches but always is one stream of consciousness until the final release. If that is in accord with the canon, then it could be assumed that the rising numbers of humans can't be attributed to streams of consciousness's branching (as one-into-many) at death/birth border.

kilanta wrote:What would be the most plausible explanation according to the orthodox classical theravada to rising numbers of humans? It seems that the number of humans has been raising for quite a while, but lately, during last century or so, the growth has been exponential.

Maybe devas have, en masse, decided to descend from heavens and to born as humans? Or a few beehives full of bees have gained enough merit to be born as humans (we seem to have a mass extinction of bees going on in Europe)?

I'm not sure if it's correct, but I assume that in most cases, maybe even all cases, one stream of consciousness can "kickstart" only one at rebirth. Or to put it more precisely, one stream of consciousness never branches but always is one stream of consciousness until the final release. If that is in accord with the canon, then it could be assumed that the rising numbers of humans can't be attributed to streams of consciousness's branching (as one-into-many) at death/birth border.

Could simply be a decrease in the number of insects or animals, but seriously there has to be life on other planets somewhere(as spoken of in scripture), all it takes is one planet to nuke itself into oblivion, or its sun to go supernova, and there's a whole planet's worth of sentient beings looking for rebirth somewhere. Not to mention beings making it out of hell realms. Or loseing a place in "heaven" realms.

18 years ago I made one of the most important decisions of my life and entered a local Cambodian Buddhist Temple as a temple boy and, for only 3 weeks, an actual Therevada Buddhist monk. I am not a scholar, great meditator, or authority on Buddhism, but Buddhism is something I love from the Bottom of my heart. It has taught me sobriety, morality, peace, and very importantly that my suffering is optional, and doesn't have to run my life. I hope to give back what little I can to the Buddhist community that has so generously given me so much, sincerely former monk John